I Thought I Lived Here Too
by october-knight
Summary: Ginny needs an apartment for cheap. Draco plain needs a flatmate. Ginny moves in and things start to get crazy, so why doesn’t he just chuck her out? Hmmm… READ&REVIEW. I'LL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND?
1. Prologue

**_I THOUGHT I LIVED HERE TOO._**  
  
SUMMARY: Ginny needs an apartment for cheap. Draco plain needs a flatmate. Ginny moves in and things start to get crazy, so why doesn't he just chuck her out? Hmmm...  
  
DISCLAIMER: Ok. So I don't own the characters or anything like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. FINE! It's not mine. But you know what? I'm gonna get lots and lots and lots of money and then you'll be sorry, cuz I ... um ... I don't know, but I'll be rich! MUY-HAHAHAHAHA!!!!  
  
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**CHAPTER 1**

"No. No, no, no!"  
  
Ginny squinted her eyes at her best friend Hermione, as if trying to decipher her meaning. Correction, her ex-best friend Hermione, the previous title was expired since the first "No." about three seconds prior.  
  
"What?" Ginny replied, dumbly, but then crossed her arms over her chest saying, "Wait, hold on a minute. Are you saying no?"  
  
"Exactly." Hermione sighed, pleased that she only needed to repeat herself three times. "Ginny, I love you. I do, you're like a sister I've never had and ... never asked for ... and that's the reason I can't have you in my home."  
  
"What?" Ginny repeated.  
  
"Okay." Hermione sighs again. This time it is weary, for she is not sure that this conversation would be over soon, and she must get home to finish that article for Witch Weekly. A meaningless magazine, that Hermione had work for in order to keep the galleons coming for bills; that is until she was fully a Ministry official in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The twenty-one year old apprentice was only months away from ending her training and she'd have her own secure spot in the department. "Let me put it to you this way. Why aren't you asking Fred or George? Or Bill or Ron?"  
  
Ginny looked bemused at this. Hermione should know and she wasn't exactly sure why Hermione was asking. "Well, I'd prefer Fred and George to not know where I sleep and eat and what-have-you. I lived with that for sixteen years, and I would prefer no more, and Bill and Ron, well that's not any fun; besides, they would be terribly annoying."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because they're family, they'd be everywhere, not that they aren't already."  
  
"EXACTLY!" this caused Ginny to jump in surprise. "As much fun as it would probably be to live together, you're like my family, we would drive each other nuts! Remember those summers we used to spend together? You snored so loud I couldn't sleep some nights."  
  
"Allergies!" Ginny defended immediately.  
  
"I bite my nails and that annoys you to hell, heaven, purgatory and back!"  
  
"Well, it's not the best habit to acquire. Quite icky to see your nails below you skin."  
  
"You don't even have a job to pay rent! So you'd be mooching off of me, which I'd only be able to stand for so long." There was nothing Ginny could say to that. Her only defense was she was an artist and needed time to open her inner eyes, they couldn't be clouded by such distractions,"Ron is almost always over, and no offense, but with you here we wouldn't be able to –"  
  
"And that is where I draw the line. I understand. Completely! Just, please, please, don't go into detail there."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Fine. Fine! I'll find someone else to move in with."  
  
"Why are you moving anyway?"  
  
"I'm tired of Mum and Dad constantly nagging me to get out and get a 'real' job."  
  
"Well, Ginny, why don't you get a 'real' job?"  
  
"Et tu, Hermione?" Ginny glared.  
  
"Just a question." She shrugged.  
  
"I've told her before. I can't have my artists eye clouded by such distractions. Getting a job will only cause me unnecessary stress and I will not be able to concentrate on my real work."  
  
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Ginny, but I'm afraid you have no other way around it." she paused, she felt sorry for her friend, the poor girl had tried so hard. "You're going to have to get a job."  
  
Ginny took in a big gulp of air. She knew it was coming, she knew she couldn't avoid it, but she had at least attempted to avoid it, and now it was time to face fact. "You're right."  
  
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And so begins Ginny's quest for the acceptable (not perfect) apartment and job.  
  
Wish her luck!!!

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So here's the thing. This is my first posted fiction and I intend to finish, though the characters may be a bit ooc I'm not too sure yet. Say what you wish just pleasepleaseplease! say something! Give me your opinion ... I'd do it for you.


	2. Draco's Prologue

I Thought I Lived Here Too.  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
  
CHAPTER 2  
  
"First off, I don't know where you get off trying to tell me that you no longer wish to live here. Where do you think you're going to go?"  
  
"Draco, I told you months ago. There's nothing for me left in this world. I've been trying to secure my new life. In Rhode Island there is a spot waiting for me at a hubcap company."  
  
"Hubcaps? Hubcaps!!!! Blaise! HUBCAPS!!!" Draco repeated incredulously.  
  
"Good, Draco. Now try 'bye-bye.' 'Bye-bye,'" Blaise said, as if talking to a baby.  
  
"Not funny. Come on. You pay half the rent! What am I going to do now?"  
  
"Find someone else to pay half the rent." then appeared to have come up with an ingenius idea. "Or pay it yourself."  
  
"You know I don't have money for that. I could only pull that off for 3 months without having to get another job."  
  
"Well then, I suggest you start searching." And with that Blaise disapparated, packed and probably headed toward the nearest airport. Draco set aside a moment to wonder what exactly Blaise would do in this hubcap company and if Blaise would fogret magic. Surely he was told, but he couldn't remember.  
  
"Fine! Go! I don't need you! I'll find someone else to pay the other half." Draco yelled to where Blaise should have been. So he sits trying to find out how to go about finding a new flatmate.  
  
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A couple hours later, there was work to be done and in order to do that, he must go to his place of work. Witch Weekly Headquarters. Yes. You heard me correctly. Draco Malfoy is a photographer for Witch Weekly magazine. You should see some of picture's he's taken. Whoo!  
  
To get back on track here 


	3. Not that desperate yet

**_I THOUGHT I LIVED HERE TOO._**

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is a measly, pathetic little excuse for a chapter. I know. but it just didn't have seem right for it to be a short little chapter explaining Ginny and then combine Draco's explanation with other parts as if his has no importance. So I post 2 and 3 at the same time. Ch. 3 is when everything REALLY starts. HAVE FUN!

CHAPTER 3

A couple hours later, there was work to be done and in order to do that, Draco must go to his place of work. Witch Weekly Headquarters. Yes. You heard me correctly. Draco Malfoy is a photographer for Witch Weekly magazine. You should see some of picture's he's taken. Whoo!  
  
To get back on track here, Draco has decided to post an ad looking for a rent payer. Though he dreads the thought of interviewing, he feels that there will not be many, because though this is a reformed Draco Malfoy, this is still Draco Malfoy.  
  
As soon as he sets foot on the premises he runs into Hermione Granger.  
  
"You're late." she scolded him. "The meeting ended five minutes ago. I told them you called in and said you weren't sure if you would show up today, there was some sort of emergency."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Yeah. Just be glad Beasley was in a good mood today. Otherwise you'd be out on your arse." she handed him a manila folder. "Anyway, you're supposed to cover the story on Mrs. Zapata. You know the ninety-two year old spinster whose about to have her twenty first child?" Draco looked horrified. "They want plenty pictures of her children, of her, and the present father. But have no fear, for I will be there as well. I have to interview her." Hermione was not pleased, or if she was, she should have gone into acting and made more money. Lots more money.  
  
Draco looked rather sorry for her. She shouldn't be working here. She was too smart and determined, at least she would get out soon. Sure they had their scraps at Hogwarts. She hit him once or twice and he called her names, but the present Draco was a better man. Even Harry and Ron grudingly ackknowledged that. Though never fully at peace, it would be right if they didn't fight, but it was just lighthearted teasing – usually. But what about Draco? How far would he go? All he had was a bad record and photography. And rent to pay.  
  
"So would you care to explain why you were late?"  
  
"I was trying to convince Blaise to stay so I won't have to pay rent on my own. Didn't work. I was trying to find out how to get someobody else to move in to take the traitor's place."  
  
"Why don't you just pay it yourself?"  
  
"You know my paycheck and you know I no longer have the money I used to." This was a fact that most ought to know but many ignored. Draco's parents died in war. They left him not a cent claiming he did not deserve it. Not that he would have been able to keep it anyway. The Ministry took it, Deatheater money to be "dirty" and no good.  
  
"Hmm." replied Hermione and made to go back to her work when she suddenly came up with a brilliant idea. "Draco!"  
  
"I take it back!" then he realized what he said when she looked confused, "Reflex. What did I do?"  
  
"I have a wonderful idea. You aren't the only one I know who's looking for a roommate."  
  
"I'm not entirely sure I'd want to live with somebody you know, Granger." Hermione rolled her eyes at this. Four years and he still couldn't call her by her real name.  
  
"Well, you need somebody, she needs somebody, you both need to pay bills. Why not?"  
  
"She, huh? Hmm." Draco rubbed his chin as if taking this and other things into consideration. Hermione hit him in his arm knocking it from underneath his chin. Then he remembers Hermione telling him about Ginny's realization that part of life is working at a job that really sucks.  
  
"Weasley? No way!"  
  
"Grow up, Draco."  
  
"I am grown up and I think I've done so quite well, and not only that but I would like to be able to keep growing up, which I don't think I could do if your Weasley – Ron –" he hesitated to say the name, "knew I lived with his little sister."  
  
"Oh come on with me ... and Gin-Ginny and ... Molly and Arthur and Harry and a- all, we could possibly, maybe, kind of convince him." her eyebrows furrow deeper and deeper and she becomes more hesitant with every word after 'me.'  
  
"Ah-ha! Exactly! You can't even convince yourself of that. Besides she wouldn' be able to pay anyway. She doesn't work! Usually that means you don't make money."  
  
"Well, it was worth a try. She's practically desperate anyway. She's been searching for a month now. She got her job at Honeydukes already. She starts today in fact. And for your information she did make some money off her sculptures."  
  
"One galleon per lump of clay, that was thrown around on a table and poked at a few times."  
  
"It was more than that and they are actually very good." Hermione defends.  
  
"Then why isn't she making any money?"  
  
"These things take time. Go away. You have work to do. And take Ginny into consideration! Please?"  
  
"Mmph. Alright. I'll think about it, but unlike Ginny, I'm not desperate yet."  
  
"Yet!" Hermione calls walking into the copy room and leaving Draco to go about his daily business and forget about Ginny.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just wanna say I appreciate the reviews that I did get. Thank you so much and keep 'em coming. Pretty please. With ice cream in the middle and a cherry one top. In case you didn't notice I purposely made it so that I didn't specify Blaise's sex. Really I think it's a guy, but I'll leave it alone. That ought to be the only time Zabini shows up in here anyway. 


	4. A grudging acquiesce

I Thought I Lived Here Too.  
  
CHAPTER 4  
  
"So. How's the apartment search going?" Hermione asked Ginny week later as they sit at the Leaky Cauldron.  
  
"Horrible. Terrible. A total disaster."  
  
"I told you Draco is looking for a –"  
  
"No."  
  
"You both need –"  
  
"No."  
  
"But –"  
  
Ginny stuffed a roll into Hermione's mouth. "No." she repeated slowly. "I don't like Draco and he doesn't like me. I'd move in and we'd kill each other. So within a month, one of us would have to find someone else anyway. I've told you this everyday this week!"  
  
"Ginny, you're desperate I know, and I know I could convince Draco to let you move in."  
  
"I don't want you to convince Draco to let me move in. I don't want... I don't want..." Ginny faded in her speech as she realized that she was tired and didn't care and didn't figure Hermione could really have any influence on Draco anyway. "Oh, go ahead."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes, I don't care anymore. I'm desperate remember?"  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it. Living with Draco won't be that bad. Really."  
  
"If you can even convince him to let me stay there."  
  
"Oh, that won't be a problem. I've already got him considering the idea now."  
  
Ginny paled. "What?"  
  
"Yeah, a while ago. I've been waiting for you to come around though. Honestly, I thought it would have taken much longer than this, but I'm glad you came to you're senses early."  
  
Ginny swallowed hard on her sandwich in her dry mouth. "Heh, yeah." And suddenly she didn't have an appetite. She could only hope Hermione was lying or exaggerating, anything to save her from the terrible fate that would await her.  
  
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"Okay, Draco. Clean up because Ginny is moving in this weekend." Hermione says to Draco the next day as soon as she walks into his office.  
  
"I don't how things work in the Muggle world, but here we knock."  
  
"Oh, sorry." She exits the office closing the door behind her. A second later Draco hears a knock and calls for her to enter. "Okay, Draco. Clean up because Ginny is moving in this weekend."  
  
"That' great, and it's wonderful for you to visit during work hours, but I have a lot of work to do and – what?!"  
  
"Ginny. Is. Moving. In. This. Weekend. Friday most likely, that's one of her day's off."  
  
"Wait a minute, I don't want her living with me. You know this."  
  
"I know nothing of the sort. She's moving in with you and that's the end of it."  
  
"Who are you my mother?"  
  
"If I said yes, would you let her move in."  
  
"I rarely listened to my real mum when she was alive. Surely you don't think I'd listen to you."  
  
"Draco, use your common sense. You both need each other." When she saw Draco pointedly trying to ignore her she opened his file cabinet and slammed it shut again.  
  
"You are a nastily determined young woman. Do you realize that?"  
  
"Yes. It's how I get far in life."  
  
"Go away."  
  
"Let Ginny move in."  
  
"I don't wanna."  
  
"Just a trial period. One month and if you both live and everything's good, you stay together. What can it really hurt?"  
  
"My arse. Because that is what all of you are to me. A big pain in my arse! And then if she does move in I'll have all those rodents popping in and out. I'll never get the peace I once had."  
  
"What peace you and Blaise fought daily. I even recall you coming to work with a black eye once."  
  
"I told you. I walked into a walk." Draco muttered.  
  
"Hmm." Hermione raised an eyebrow. When he said nothing back, she decide to take advantage of it. "I won't leave you alone. Ever. We work together. I see you almost daily. I know where you like. I know exactly how to reach you. I'll never cease. Either way you go crazy."  
  
"I know you're not lying. That's what makes me truly frightened." Hermione looked smug. "Fine, alright. She'll move in, but after one month , she's out!"  
  
"If everything doesn't work."  
  
"Everything won't work. Trust me."  
  
"Alright." Hermione tells him. And no matter how much she thinks she's helping, and how sure she sounds, she can't but wonder if this is really going to turn out alright, or if there will be a funeral by the next month. No matter how much she thinks she's helping.  
  
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Author's note:  
  
Alright, first I'd like to say again that I really appreciate all the reviews I've gotten. And I just have to say to Akarusa30991, you're right. I haven't heard of "Good Morning Call." Why do you ask? 


	5. Ginny Weasley doesn't do toilets

**Chapter 5**

****

"Ginny! Are you ready yet?" Hermione calls up the stairs of the Burrow. She had just arrived five minutes prior and greeted Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen.  
  
"I'm coming!" Ginny yells walking down the stairs with a box filled with smaller boxes.Those boxes had been reduced in size for convenience.  
  
"Fina...Ginny? Are you wearing mourning clothes?" Hermione asks as she sees Ginny fully now. She's wearing black gloves, black robes, a black bonnet with a veil and and her hair was assumingly tied in a bun hidden in the bonnet.  
  
"Just breaking it in. Figure somebody's dying by the end of the month. It's either Draco, you, or me, and it ain't gonna be me."  
  
"ME!?" Hermione cries, certainly not expecting this.  
  
"Yeah you! You got us into this mess. No way you're getting off easier than the rest of us."  
  
"Mercy! How many times do I have to tell you? It won't be that bad!"  
  
Ginny only glared before Disapparating into Diagon Alley.  
  
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She arrives in the living room of Draco's two-bedroom, one bath flat above Scribbulus Everchanging Inks, to find him lounging on his sofa reading a book that has an unclear title. He looks up at her and heaves a heavy sigh. Then he looks at her curiously.  
  
"Who died?"  
  
"Hermione."  
  
"Shame." and thus ends their first conversation.  
  
Was it just Ginny, or are there really crickets chirping in the background. After a long period terribly awkward silence – where was Hermione!? – she clears her throat.  
  
"Where will I be staying? Could I have a tour, do you think?" she hopes he is somewhat clean.  
  
"Living room." he replies. He takes the ten steps from his position in the middle of the room, walking around Ginny, to the edge of the kitchen, seperated from the living room by a counter. "Kitchen." Ten paces to the left and he enters a hallway with four doors; two on the right, one on the left, one at the very end. Starting with the first on the right, he knocks once on each door, counter-clockwise and names the room. "Closet. Bathroom. My room. Yours." After, he returns to the middle of the living room where he began.  
  
"Pleasant."  
  
"Thank you. Now, for the rules." she stands there listening and ignoring the irritation that comes with being told what she's supposed to do from Draco Malfoy. Where is HERMIONE!? "First and foremost, you are not to enter my room for any reason whatsoever.(Like I reeaally want to, she thinks). Next, as you live here now I expect you to 'earn your keep' shall we say (I'm not sleeping with you, she glares, inside that is). You have chores to do around here as well (I refuse to touch dishes or your toilet). We'll decide how to split those at a later time. I expect your half of the rent at least a week before the rent is due (expect the rent when you wish, doesn't mean you'll get it). And finally, do something about the mourning clothes, they're very depressing (You're depressing)." After a silent pause. "Clear?"  
  
"Transparently." As is your incredibly pale skin. She ponders for a second telling him that the sun does wonders for such defects, but feels that the moment has passed and instead she leaves to inspect her new room.  
  
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In this new room of hers, she finds a bed in the south corner, an empty dresser and nightstand, a vanity, and upon inspection of the closet she finds a few articles of men and women's clothing. She has enough time to wonder if Malfoy's last flatmate was a cross-dresser, and if they did unheard of things in the bed that she should sleep in before, thankfully, Hermione opens the door and distracts her from that thought, for the moment.  
  
"Where were you?" she demands of Hermione.  
  
"I was at the Burrow." she answers, ignoring Ginny's tone.  
  
"What were you doing there, instead of here, helping me."  
  
"You haven't even started unpacking yet, besides I figured, I'd give you and Draco a chance to get better acquainted." Ginny growls very quietly and only for a moment, not at Hermione though, just at the thought of having to get acquainted with Malfoy.  
  
"I don't wanna. I wanna go home."  
  
"Ginny. You've barely been here 10 minutes."  
  
"Exactly, so how am I going to stand living here?"  
  
"Just relax and open up. It won't be so bad. Draco's not so bad. You get used to him. In fact, he kind of grows on you."  
  
"I don't want Malfoy on me! Ew!" she shakes her head. "I just want to be out of the house and free. I don't want to put up with Malfoy and I don't want to put up with little screaming kids crying for candy and I don't want bills and rent. All I want to make my sculptures and become rich and famous! That's all I want and it's simple. Why can't I have it!" she whines and to complete her little rant she stomps her foot childishly.  
  
"Now you listen to me little girl."  
  
"I'm not little.' Ginny pouts.  
  
Hermione glares at her. "You are being childish and I do not appreciate this. Nobody can do everything they want. So you like sculpting, you can't make a living off of that, at least not yet. Maybe one day you'll be able to because you are great at it, but for now put up with the screaming kids and the bills and Draco. I had to do a lot of convincing to help you get this place and for what you're going to have to pay and for the way this place looks, I did you a pretty big favor. So what do I get for it? Glares and complaints. Well you know what? I won't stand for it. You want to leave? Leave, but you'll be back were you started from. Square one. Enjoy!" she turns to leave the room and talk to Draco for a minute, while letting her guilt trip sink in, but it takes less time than she assumed, because just as she's reaching the door she hears, "I'm sorry," in a very small voice. She turns to face a very shamefaced girl.  
  
"You're right, Hermione. I'm sorry." she sighs. "I don't want to be here, but you're right. It isn't so bad, with the exception of Malfoy, from what I've seen this place is pretty nice. I shouldn't attack you for helping me."  
  
"I forgive you," Hermione smiles; Ginny does as well.  
  
"It's going to be a long month. I think I should talk to Draco."  
  
"Good. I'll unpack a few of your things for you?"  
  
"That'd be great thanks." and so Ginny leaves the room and Hermione makes the boxes their original sizes.  
  
Five minutes later, as Hermione is curiously observing the pink pantalettes on the closet floor, she hears a gurgling yell and a toilet flushing. Immediately she runs out of the room to see that the door across the hall to the bathroom is open. Inside, Ginny looks satisfied and Draco looks ... wet. At seeing Hermione's confusion, Ginny offers her a list. Written by Draco's hand it said:  
  
_Ginny's Chores__  
_

_Sweep the floor  
_

_Dust the mantle_

_Wash the dishes  
  
_

_ Take out the trash  
_

_ Clean the shower  
_

_ Clean the toilet  
_

"I tried to tell him I don't clean toilets, but he didn't listen." Ginny shrugged. Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed. It was going to be a long month.


	6. Lists

_**Chapter 6**_  
  
After Draco's first ever swirly, that – though he may never admit it – has left him somewhat scarred, Draco decided that he would clean the bathroom; she, the kitchen, and they divided up the chores of the living room. By Monday they found out most of each others bad habits, which annoyed each of them to no end. Draco cracked his knuckles, neck, back, toes, wrists, shoulders, and just about every other popable body parts, loudly; moaned in his sleep, loudly; absolutely had to be the first to read the paper, and found it necessary to keep the apartment at exactly 72 degrees, always. Ginny belched, barefaced; cried unreserved for soaps on the tele, which Blaise convinced him to get, now he was hooked; she was terribly messy; and Draco lost count of how many times a Weasley has popped in and out of his home in the four days she had been there.  
  
Now, it's Wednesday, and things, needless to say haven't gotten better. It's nine in the evening and Ginny is sitting in the armchair legs crossed reading The Quibbler. Draco who had locked himself in his room for a third of the day finally comes out. Into the kitchen he foes for a snack and continues to the living room to watch his favorite show that comes on every Wednesday, Carousels in Havana.  
  
"Do you mind turning that down a bit?" a tinge of impatience in Ginny's voice.  
  
"Yes." Draco looks at her looking at him from over her magazine. "You read that dribble?" he asks amazed that anyone sane or not would read it and annoyed, just because.  
  
"Yes." Ginny say lifts her chin defiantly. She has no defense and she knows it. She only reads it when there's nothing better to do, and it is rather entertaining to read some of the crazy things they come up with in it.  
  
"When I thought your IQ couldn't possibly be any lower." Draco shakes his head.  
  
"You're one to talk. Look at what you're watching." Ginny points to the screen. "What is that anyway? Are those horses speaking to each other in Spanish?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"But the people are speaking in English?"  
  
"Yes. But at least I know exactly what the horses are saying."  
  
"Yeah, cause it's subtitled."  
  
"Doesn't mean anything, I don't need the subtitles."  
  
"Okay," she says covering the subtitles with her magazine, "what did the horse just say?" Draco hesitates. "They're having turkey for lunch." She reveals what the subtitle reads, 'What are we going to do for food?' "Well, I got the general idea." Ginny snorts.  
  
"Yeah, okay. Close guess, but not quite on target."  
  
"So I'm a bit rusty." He refuses to admit that he never knew Spanish to begin with, but she can see that.  
  
"At least I know how to clean up after myself."  
  
"What is that suppose to mean?"  
  
"What do you think it's supposed to mean? You leave everything lying around. Your candy wrappers, your little sculpting thingies, you have four different color socks on the living room floor, which I am not about pick up!"  
  
"What about you? Do you know I can hear you bloody moaning at three o'clock in the morning! I've lost sleep because of that! Everytime you give into the urge to crack a body part I pray that you break it off. AND for your information, it is good luck to wear different color socks! And I wouldn't have to remove them in the living room if you wouldn't have to keep it so bleeding hot in here!"  
  
"Seventy-two degrees is not hot! You're a loon! You with your incredibly loud sobbing because Julia's sister is having and affair with her comatose husband on Diamonds and Death! You with you're disgusting lack of manners! You with you family popping in and out of your family which is driving me to the point of wanting to call exterminators!"  
  
"Well I live here as well now and I can do what I damn well please. I'm not trying to impress you, I'm trying to stand you! And just so you know. It's Julia's niece! Not her sister!"  
  
"Yeah? Well isn't it that much better!" Draco cries not sure what he saying now, just being mad.  
  
"It IS!" Ginny yells experiencing the same thing.  
  
"Great!"  
  
"Wonderful!"  
  
"Terrific!"  
  
"Peachy!"  
  
"Excellent!"  
  
"I love you!" they stand there for a minute, Draco looks confused, but Ginny holds her glare.  
  
"What?" he asks, confused and still angered.  
  
"HA! I broke you!"  
  
"You're mad! That made absolutely no sense!" He yells.  
  
"EXACTLY!" she yells back, then stomps into her room and slams the door.  
  
Thirty seconds later, Draco is still looking at her door and yells "What!" and though he doesn't know it, Ginny doesn't hear because she has Disapparated to Hermione's. He, too, storms into his room and slams the door.  
  
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()  
  
"HERMIONE!!!" Ginny yells as soon as she's Apparated. "HERMIONEEEEE!!!"  
  
"WHAT!" Hermione answers walking into the foyer where Ginny stands. "Ginny, what is it? What wrong? Did something happen? Is everything okay?" she sees Ginny standing red-faced and panting slighty.  
  
"Yes, something's wrong. Yes, something happened, and no, everything is not okay!" Ginny's voice ascends in every word, she can't control it.  
  
"Ginny, stop yelling we're in the same room. A very small room, as a matter of fact." Hermione tells her, "Come on, let's go into the living room and you can tell me what happened," and she turns with Ginny following her.  
  
"You happened. Malfoy happened, and moving in. It's all not good!"  
  
"Stop yelling! And think before you speak. You're sentences are incoherent and you're beginning to sound like Ron." She sits herself on the couch and motions for Ginny to sit. "Something to drink? Maybe some ice water will cool you off."  
  
"Funny."  
  
"Well." Hermione shrugs.  
  
"I hate Draco." Ginny slacks in the armchair in which she is seated.  
  
"Well established. Have you two even tried being civil to each other?"  
  
"I tried, but he's so touchy after the toilet incident. He holds a grudge with a grip like a hawk." "Well, I think you could have come up with a better way to settle that." Ginny shoots her a look that clearly says 'traitor.' "You don't expect me to lie to you do you?" Hermione asks in response to her glare.  
  
"I would prefer it." She has her arms crossed over her chest and her legs are crossed, too. She was watching her foot shake when she realizes she has left home completely barefoot. Hermione notices, too.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"He wouldn't turn down his show and then we started arguing again."  
  
"You didn't do the swirly again, did you?"  
  
"Much worse popped into my head, but I restrained myself. In any case, we yelled so much we stopped making sense, even to ourselves. I'm not going to tell you what I told him to shut him up. I think it was to shut him up, I stopped paying attention to my motives after I told him some of the things he does to irk me. I just wanted to yell."  
  
"Not the best way to resolve problems."  
  
"Obviously." Ginny rolls her eyes. "Anyway, can I stay here? Just for tonight? To be in that place again with him, I might just put the pillow over his head when he sleeps tonight. Or he'll do it to me."  
  
Hermione hesitates, "Well I suppose for tonight, but this isn't going to be a common recurrence. You two need to learn to get along. You'll apologize tomorrow."  
  
"Will not!"  
  
"Will to. Otherwise, you're out."  
  
"Hmph."  
  
"Couch pulls out, blankets in hall closet, you know. Goodnight." Hermione sings walking into her bedroom.  
  
"I hate you." Ginny sings back to her. She unfolds the couch and pulls out the blanket and pillow. Before she can fall asleep, she makes a list in her head of the reasons to stay friends with Hermione and the reasons shun her. Once again – for this isn't the first time she makes this list, especially this week, and it won't be the last, ever – the list to stay friends overrides the list to shun by far. 


	7. The Apology Dinner Part I:Psycho Murder...

**_Chapter 7_**  
  
**A/N: Uh, this is your captain speaking. Sorry for the delay, I have a bit of short-term memory loss and tend to get side tracked. By the way saw 50 First Dates. Cute. Uh, right. Have fun, and thank you for flying OCTOBER KNIGHT AIR. Next stop (or rather chapter) due soon... _er..._  
**

()()()()()()()()()()

"You are an evil, evil witch." Hermione looks up from her desk at Draco's voice.  
  
"Pardon?" this is starting to get old Hermione finds.  
  
"I need you to explain to me one more time why this girl is in my apartment."  
  
"Keep in mind Draco it's no longer your apartment alone. It's now as well. She paid for it the day she moved in."  
  
"That's not the point."  
  
"Didn't she apologize this morning?"  
  
"No she didn't apologize. I haven't seen her since she slammed the door to her room last night. I take it she spent the night with you?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, if I would have known that I wouldn't have slept with the door locked with an alarm spell and light on. I thought she would have put a pillow over my head while I slept." Draco pauses for a second, realizing something for the first time. "You roomed me with a psychotic MURDERER! If I didn't want to make it to thirty I would have sided with Voldemort. I didn't need to recruit you for that."  
  
"She is not a psychotic murderer." Hermione hopes he didn't pick up on her stutter. He did. "In any case she came over to my house so she wouldn't do it. Not that she would to begin with."  
  
"Right." Draco leans down to be eye level with Hermione. "I want her out."  
  
"First: NO! She already paid for her month, AND you two signed a contract. Second: if you want her out why are you telling me? Tell her."  
  
"I'll need a body guard first." he mutters, straightening up and leaning on her desk with his arms crossed.  
  
"Oh, get over it. And get to work."  
  
"Who are you to tell –" Draco starts, feeling indignant.  
  
"Out! Go! Work!" Hermione points to the door, and dejectedly Draco does listen to her. When he's out and the door closes Hermione wonders when she'll learn to keep her good intentions to herself.  
  
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()  
  
When Draco enters the flat there is a strange aroma that hits him. It's good. It's smells good. It smells like ... chicken teriyaki? What?  
  
"Weasley?" he called out.  
  
"Malfoy." Ginny confirmed.  
  
"What are you doing?" Draco asks walking into the kitchen. "What's that smell?"  
  
"You don't like it?" she asks turning from the stove.  
  
"What is it?" he is thoroughly confused.  
  
"Chicken teriyaki!" Ginny says as if it should be obvious. "Part of my apology for being silly. I shouldn't have shoved your head in the toilet," as amusing as it was to see you squirm, she thinks, "and I shouldn't have acted so immature."  
  
"Why chicken teriyaki?"  
  
"Hermione told me you liked it, that is was one of your favorites. I'm hoping that my cooking abilities are good enough to coerce you into calling a truce."  
  
"You didn't poison it did you?" he asks sitting down at the table and looking at the food being put onto his plate suspiciously.  
  
"No, I didn't poison it. That would defeat the purpose." Ginny says, and begins filling her own plate. "If you don't trust me, I can test it for you."  
  
"Hermione knows you made this for me?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Well, then she'll know the cause of my sudden death. Though you two may be in cahoots. I'll have you know I had a physical right before you moved in and I was healthy as a horse. They'll know it was murder."  
  
"Shut up and eat, before it gets cold and I have to hear you complain about that." Ginny cut him off and began eating her own food, blowing it before placing it in her mouth. He stopped and eyed his plate warily. First he smelled it, and then he poked at it with his fork. Ginny laughs quietly looking at him with her head bent down to face her plate. Finally deciding it was no longer so questionable he takes a piece in his mouth.  
  
"Oh! Ah!" he breathes.  
  
"What! I really didn't poison it!" Ginny's head had snapped up at the noises and she looks like he was accusing her of attempted murder. But he shakes his head and has his mouth in an o shape.  
  
"Ah!" he breathes, yet again. "Hah! Ha! HOT!" and Ginny restrains her laughter. He chews painfully trying to keep from burning his tongue, the roof of his mouth and the inside of his cheeks. It's quite comical to watch and Ginny can barely keep from falling off her chair. "Yo a cwa-e wih!" Draco yells at her not quite able to use his tongue yet.  
  
"I'm sorry, what was that? I have lazy wit? Really Draco that makes no sense!" Ginny mocks before she can help herself.  
  
"You're a crazy witch! A lunatic! What the hell were you trying to do!" he yells when it doesn't hurt so much.  
  
"It's not my fault that you don't know any better than to eat something right of the oven without cooling it first. And you thought you were the smart one." She laughs.  
  
"That's it! You're out!" he commands, standing and pointing to the door.  
  
"I believe not." Ginny begins, also rising from her seat. "We signed a contract. I paid my half. I'm staying. That's final."  
  
"NO!"  
  
"That's your argument? 'No?' What are you? Five? 'No.' Oh let me go off and pack my bags on that one. Then again, how about not! I'm staying, I know you won't leave and the last thing either of us wants is to have murder threats hanging over us for the next three weeks, so you are going to sit down, shut up, accept my apology – that I am woman enough to give by the way – and eat! And you will cool off your food before you stick it in your mouth!" Ginny finishes, sitting once again and returning to her plate, looking as though nothing happened, if only it weren't for the red in her face.  
  
Draco, serious considering this woman truly unstable, decides to do as she says, afraid any further prodding would enrage the madness within. Hesitantly, he did eat his dinner made for him, because one, he had a very small lunch and two, Ginny. It wasn't half bad either. She was quite the cook. He would no sooner admit that, than he would the fact that he made sure Ginny was unaware he was in the bathroom unless he had his wand at the ready, or could have it ready in two seconds.  
  
After about twenty minutes of silence Ginny began to regret her temper tantrum.  
  
"Malfoy?" was it her imagination or did he just jump? "Er, Draco..." Uh, apologize? No it didn't seem right. To redundant. "Um... How's the chicken?"  
  
"Oh. It's good. Good. Tasty. Yum." Came Draco's reply, with almost less enthusiasm than when he heard he had to take pictures of tattoos of evil dark lords on the rears of ten witches and wizards over one hundred. This time there was no cursing.  
  
"Malfoy," she sighed, "I won't snap if you don't like it. Really, I'm like a cute puppy. Don't attack and I won't."  
  
"Right." And I can fly without a broom, or a hippogriff, or a thestral... Oh you get the idea!  
  
"I'm sorry?"  
  
"Any interesting new?" Yawn.  
  
"You're a git?"  
  
"I said 'interesting,' not old."  
  
"Harry's pregnant with Ron's child?"  
  
"Really?" About time...  
  
"No. Ron's with Hermione you know that."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you and Potter are to announce your engagement any day now." Blah, blah, blah...  
  
"Well... not really. We aren't even really seeing each other, but when he's in town there's definitely a spark. I'm just – "  
  
"I didn't ask." Draco cuts her off. Ginny blushes. Merlin, just like at Hogwarts, pathetic. Draco shakes his head.  
  
"Well, anyway, have we got a truce? Three weeks is a long time to be living the way we are." Ginny holds out her hand over the table. Looking at her hand as he had her chicken, he wonders if insanity is contagious, before shaking it and sighing. Ginny is as well but hers is more out of relief than anything else, while Draco is feeling weary and wary and bored.  
  
"Do you drink, Weasley?"  
  
"Usually. I find it keeps me hydrated, healthy and alive."  
  
"Alcohol, Weasley."  
  
"Socially, I'm a hideous drunk."  
  
"So it doesn't have an affect on you, does it?"  
  
"Hilarious, you are. A regular, stand-up." Ginny comments dryly.  
  
"Come on, I don't have to go into work tomorrow, I'm bored and I have a full bottle of firewhisky in the cabinet. Let's get pissed."  
  
Ginny scrunches up her nose. "Fun as that sounds, I'll pass. Though I won't mind watching you. I imagine it would be funny to see you disoriented, giddy, and slower than a stick on Sunday. Well, more than usual." Ginny added as an after thought.  
  
"Come on, Weasley. You're a social drinker, I feel like being social, think of this as ... my apology."  
  
Ginny takes a deep breath and shrugs. "Ah, what the hell. Bring out the bottle, and pray we can keep our clothes on, and our hands off each others throats."  
  
()()()()()()  
  
A/N: Do you feel it coming? Eh? Eh? Ah... I feel a song coming on.... (Tantalizing music intro) I keep really try-yin' baby, (beat) trying to hold back these feelings for sooo long. But if you feel like I feel baby. Come on. Wow come on... let's get in on....  
  
Ok so Marvin Gaye and his 'friend' had fun that night... but will Ginny and Draco?


	8. The Apology Dinner Part II:Hermione's G...

Chapter 8  
  
By midnight the bottle was nearly empty, and given up on the glasses. Sometime between the impromptu wrestling match and breaking the coffee table Ginny and Draco wound up lying on the living room floor.  
  
"So, I tell the guy, 'Look if you think it's so easy to get into an orange corset and do Julie Pulaski's rendition of 'The Augurey Cries My Fate,' in under a minute - which by the way if you didn't know is a three minute song from before Dumbledore's time even – then you can do it and I can be the man." Draco finishes his tale of one of the first of the many odd jobs he had after the war and before the Daily Prophet.  
  
"Good for you!" Ginny cries commending his decision. "Orange is a horrible color for you."  
  
"Yeah, the corset didn't fit to well either."  
  
"You know I thought you were a terribly egotistical prat with his wand stuck up his arse, but you really aren't."  
  
"Really? What am I?" asks Draco, curious to know.  
  
"Just an egotistical prat, turns out your wand is nowhere near your arse."  
  
"Thank you." Draco says, rolling onto to his side to rest a hand on Ginny's arm. "I really appreciate that," his words are slurring. "People just don't understand me. You know, I used to think that you were a loony bitch who should be locked up in St. Mungo's in the psychotic and deranged area."  
  
"And now what do you think?" she's slurs a little as well, still looking at the ceiling, but her hand is patting Draco's comfortingly.  
  
"That you're a loony bitch who should be locked up in St. Mungo's in the psychotic and deranged area." He declares simply, but then continues, "But there must be reason you're not locked up yet and I trust that."  
  
"That was kind of you." she turns to face him smiling.  
  
"I don't think you can hold liquor so well," he shakes his head at her.  
  
"I can't," and she shakes her head, agreeing with him, and giggling.  
  
"Oh, well it isn't so bad, I was half-afraid you'd be a mean drunk," he lets out an abrupt laugh. "Merlin would somebody change the bloody temperature? It's a bleeding sauna."  
  
"Now I know you're drunk," she continues to giggle, "Mr. It-Better-Be- Seventy-Two-Degrees-In-Here-Or-I'm-Going-To-Go-Voldemort-On-You-And-Destroy- Everything-And-You-Aren't-Going-To-Like-It."  
  
"Seventy-two degrees is not hot." Draco pouts, returning his gaze to the ceiling.  
  
"And yet you're complaining about it being 'a sauna,'" she turns away from him as well.  
  
"Be quiet." Draco tells her, but is only mimicked childishly.  
  
After a few minutes of silence, "So, if you don't like me, and I don't like you, and we don't like each other, then why are we living together?" Ginny asks.  
  
"Because of a woman who is too good for her own good."  
  
"Hermione's an evil, evil witch." Ginny states.  
  
"Evil, evil." Draco agrees.  
  
"We should pay her back."  
  
"Yeah..." Draco seems to revel in the idea. "How?"  
  
"I've a cunning plan."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Erm... I will have a cunning plan." Ginny thinks for moment.  
  
"We should tie her to a tree in the Forbidden Forest." Draco suggests.  
  
"I say we tie her to the tracks used by the Hogwarts Express."  
  
"She hates flying. I say we put her on a thestral and send her on her way around the world – twice."  
  
"Hmm. I think we should sell her to Fred and George, for experimental purposes."  
  
His head snaps to look at her. "We don't want to kill her. Just scar her a bit."  
  
"How'd you and she become friends anyway?" looking back at him.  
  
"Working in close quarters will do that."  
  
"Do you think living in close quarters will do that?"  
  
"Highly likely I fear." He pauses. "I've never told anyone, but I'm very partial to red hair." His tells her fingering her locks that have fallen across her face.  
  
"I often pondered your blonde."  
  
"I really enjoy the fact you added that flowery, fruity smell to the flat."  
  
She nods with a laugh.  
  
"And I really enjoyed your apology meal." He leans in closer. "I really had too much to drink."  
  
She nods again, and leans in with him. The kiss is clumsy and drunken as Ginny rolls on top of him, and lets out a tiny whine as she tugs at his shirt. His hands are on her hips and he's growing more and more anxious. Within moments they're on the couch, clothing reduced to undergarments.  
  
STOP! A voice in Ginny's head cries. STOP! It's more urgent now.  
  
YOU'RE DRUNK! STOP! STOP! Sounds a similar voice in Draco's mind.  
  
CEASE AND DESIST! They are simultaneous and Draco and Ginny tug apart looking at each other frightened. Inside themselves their consciences sigh in relief. Unfortunately their libidos don't.  
  
They jump away from each other like the plague with the couch between them.  
  
"What the hell!" Draco yells. Ginny whimpers. Both upset that they allowed that to happen and that they didn't finish what they started.  
  
Oh yeah. Hermione was definitely gonna get hers.  
  
A/N: I apologize for the constant changing of the verb tense as Shuffle Queen pointed out (thank you). I will do my best to keep from making those mistakes again.  
  
"We don't want to kill her. Just scar her a bit." Just so you know, it is 'scar,' not a typo. They want her scarred not scared.  
  
"I've a cunning plan." -Blackadder. I couldn't resist.  
  
Mercy, I hope the next chapter is better. I sense something was/is missing, but I reread it over and over and I don't exactly know what it is. I hope it isn't anything important.  
  
One thing there are italics and bold in this chapter but ffn is being stubborn and not saving that. It's not important really, but it just seems so very plain now. And my computer is playing tricks on me b/c I scroll the preview and it's underlined and I scroll again and it's not. this ch. sux.  
  
Last, but not least, THANK YOU, VERY, VERY MUCH!!! for your review.   
  
I also feel it's appropriate to give a special thanx to Luna Gypsy and Rock-Witch, for your constant feedback and letting me know I haven't mucked up yet. Maybe I should have saved that for the end but. I could not resist.  
  



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